Recently I’ve found myself lusting over high-end fancy textile jackets. The stuff that costs a small fortune and has a fancy brand name. I don’t need this stuff, but I’m constantly trying to convince myself that I do. In truth, I don’t.
A couple of years ago, Oxford Clothing threw a spanner in the laminated motorcycle clothing market with their Oxford Mondial Advanced Textile range. Up until then, laminated textiles had always been exclusive and expensive.
Not having the cash for the high-end fancy stuff, I had good quality drop liner jackets and supplemented this with the Oxford Rain Seal over jacket for those days when the rain wouldn’t stop.
To get the price to an amazingly low launch price of £250 (from memory), Oxford dropped a few of the fancy features in favour of functional simplicity, not that you would really notice. In the four-plus years I’ve owned mine, I’ve never found myself picking faults with the jacket.
Yes, there are a couple of improvements I’d like, but that was the whole point of the Oxford Mondial Advanced range, a laminated, all-weather textile jacket and trousers with all the required features, none of the glitz and delivered at a reasonable price.
Klim Gore-Tex Latitude Textile Jacket
Yet my desire persists, and I’m always on the hunt for a high-end laminated bargain. So imagine my delight when trawling through the internet, I came across a heavily discounted Klim Gore-Tex Latitude Textile Jacket in SportsBikeShop’s clearance section.
As the choice of sizes was slightly limited, I’m guessing that an upgraded version is about to be released, and retailers are looking to move the outgoing version to make way for the new.
Still, 25% off a Klim Gore-tex jacket, even if it was still going to cost me an eye watering £562.50, sounded like a bargain, so off to Boston I went.
Man buys jacket isn’t Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism, so you might have guessed already that the Klim jacket didn’t fit.
The 2XL was too tight over my Keis Heated Jacket, and for the 3XL, I needed arms that were three inches longer.
But there were other problems too. The zips on the lower arm didn’t run to the bottom of the sleeve. Instead, they stopped about an inch short at an unopenable cuff. As a result, getting a pair of gloves inside the sleeve would be almost impossible.
I’ve been to the gym a few times, but I’m more marshmallow than a muscle, yet my biceps and forearms were tight in the jacket, which doesn’t come with a thermal liner. So layering up is the only way to stay warm in winter.
I wanted this jacket to fit, or perhaps more correctly; I wanted the badge. Klim and Rukka make excellent products, but that nagging voice told me that navigating a gravel car park would be as close to the adventure lifestyle as I was likely to get.
Oxford Mondial Advance
Somewhat disappointed that my exquisite bargain of a Klim jacket hadn’t worked out, I spent the next three days covering 700 miles riding across the Pennines to Scotland and back in my Oxford Mondial Advanced textiles. With jackets on my mind, I tried to work out why I wanted a replacement.
All the zips on my four-year-old Oxford Mondial still work. There are no leaks. The sculpted collar lets me wear a high-neck Keis heated jacket as an extra layer when it is chilly without restricting my neck and head movement. The pockets are watertight, and the jacket is laminated so the outer layer doesn’t become waterlogged if I’m in the rain all day.
On hot and sunny days, the barn door-sized vents in the chest let a howling gale through to keep me cool. On warm days the two-way zips on the forearms open to allow a steady breeze through the jacket that can exit via the long vents in the back.
The only improvements I’d like would be access to the Napoleon chest pocket by only needing to undo the storm flap rather than the inner zip as well. More space in the cuffs to accommodate gloves pushed up inside would be welcomed, and the ability to pin back both sides of the neck, rather than just the left, would be the icing on the cake.
That’s it. That is all I can find wrong with the jacket.
Bering
If the Oxford Textile Advanced range isn’t to your taste, then take a look at Bering and especially the Bering Alaska Laminated Jacket, which blends Gallic design flare with laminated functionality.
The jacket has all the usual features and a few extra touches that make it stand out. Whereas I’ve no direct experience with the brand, the stand-out comments are how well they fit. Rather than following the arbitrary sizing models, it appears that Bering has used real people when it came to sizing their textiles.
At £240, the Bering Alaska jacket is something of a steal, retailing at £40 less than the Oxford. Perhaps it is another design that is being upgraded, and the £600 Bering Hurricane is what comes next.
Either way, the Bering Alaska jacket is a bargain if any are left. Unfortunately, the matching trousers appear to have sold out, leaving the Bering Yukon Gore-tex trousers the most cost-effective – laminated – answer but costing £350.
So, What Is Your Point?
If you are willing to forego the label, good-quality laminated textiles do not need to cost a small fortune. Oxford may have been the first – and they remain a good choice – but they have serious competition.
There will be a base price below which too many corners will have been cut, so cheap doesn’t always mean cost-effective.
But, four years or more into my Oxford Mondial Advanced textiles, they are still going strong, despite some of the wear and tear I’ve subjected them to.
If I want to change, then Bering looks to be a good option, and despite the devil on my shoulder telling me I need a Klim or Rukka jacket, I would lose the argument with the financial controller.
After all, a quilted lining keeps the morning chill out, my Keis Jacket keeps me toasty when it is cold, and the Oxford Dry2Dry laminate keeps me dry.
How much drier would a fancy label keep me? According to the voices in my head … it isn’t about that; it is a lifestyle choice. And so, the argument rages on. Bugger.
Clarity
Testing products is something we do for manufacturers. However, the Oxford Mondial Advanced textiles we talk about here were bought with our own cash money.
No freebies, favours, wads of greasy £20 notes or any other benefits were received. Heck, most of the time, it takes three emails before we get a reply from Oxford’s marketing department.
